99% of Schools Meet Bullying Deadline (MA)

January 4, 2011

The anti-bullying policy deadline for state public schools and districts is up.

In just under a year, nearly 99% of Massachusetts public school districts have pulled-off filing their anti-bullying policies on-time. This is quite the turn-around from nearly-two weeks ago, when, according to the Boston Globe, only 60% had met the mandate.

390 state schools have met the December 31 deadline except for three; two public schools and one charter school. At this time, it is not being reported exactly which schools did not file policies with the Department of Education.

State lawmakers passed a stri ct anti-bullying law last May. This legislation was triggered after several incidents, including the April 2009 death of Carl Walker-Hoover, 11, of Springfield, and the January 2010 death of Phoebe Prince, 15, of South Hadley. These two Western Massachusetts students committed suicide after allegedly being harassed both at school and on the Internet.

The guidelines of this law require schools to create a bullying prevention and intervention plan, that prohibits bullying, cyberbullying, and retaliation. In addition, principals are expected to report bullying to parents and involve police if necessary.